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By Radmilo Bozinovic - rasa@rudnik.com
From the advent of coinage more than 2,600 years ago, numismatics - the study
of metal currency - has been a fascinating and rewarding endeavor. By studying
the images represented, language of inscriptions, artistic expression, metal
composition and more, we can often fine valuable evidence not only for a
particular monetary economy, but also about distant times and societies, and
the dynamics of their development. We hope that the material presented will
illustrate the power of numismatic research, but even more so the rich
historical experience of the times it covers.
Medieval Serbian Coinage
Despite serious research that has been continuously performed on the subject
since mid-19th century, Serbian medieval numismatics remains both rather
obscure and inconclusive on many issues. There is no concensus, say, on the
attributions (to rulers), mint dates or interpretations of various symbols
("mint-marks") for a great many of the coin types, which adds a dose of
mystery to the subject.
Although it existed for only about 200 years, medieval Serbian coinage shows
a remarkable variety, with an estimated 600 types and variants - many of them
borrowing from designs existing in other coinages, but also including some
original ones. While many millions were minted overall, an estimated
50-60 thousand are in existence today (mostly in museums and a few bigger
private collections), a large part of them discovered during the last 150
years.
It is believed that the first Serbian (Rascian) coins were issues of
St. Sava's elder nephew, king Stefan Radoslav (1227-1234), struck at the
capital town of Ras. Few remain today of these coins that closely modeled
some earlier Byzantine types (including Greek inscriptions), perhaps
reflecting Radoslav's Greek (Dukas family) heritage and aspirations, stemming
from his mother's side. However, after his deposition and the destruction
of Ras (1233), coins were not struck for several decades.
Regular issuance of Serbian coins is considered to have started with king
Stefan Uros I (1243-1276), probably late in his reign. The silver
dinars closely modeled the Venetian grosso - although with the
appropriate title and ruler - which eventually led to the monetary
embargo imposed by Venice on Serbian coins in 1282. It is not clear today
whether this was in response to apparent debasement (lowered silver content)
of these coins or for more sinister reasons, but the whole event was
noted in Dante's Divine Comedy (with a probable reference to
King Milutin):
"And Portugal should be held in blame,
with Norway and the Rascian
who laid his eyes on Venetian coins
and forged his own ill-fame."
(Dante Alighieri, Paradise, Canto XIX, Eagle speaking).
The earliest mints in Serbia were around the newly discovered silver mines -
the first and largest being Brskovo (Montenegro, since ca. 1270),
then Rudnik (Sumadija, since the 1290's), Novo Brdo (Metohija, since 1326),
and later several others (Srebrenica, Trepca, Prizren, Ohrid, Plana,
Skoplje, Rudiste, etc.).
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